Life is about taking chances, and you begin taking chances from the time you are a baby. Taking first steps can be scary, but then you learn that it helps you to walk and eventually run. Childhood and adolescence affords many opportunities for taking risks, yet as you grow into an adult, risk-taking behavior declines.[1] If you miss the thrill of trying something new and engaging a different aspect of yourself, be bold and take a chance. Personal growth happens when you are ready to confront your fears and move forward.

Steps

Part 1

Engaging in Risks

1

Evaluate the risk. For most people, the fear of not having control of an outcome is the greatest deterrent to taking a risk.[2] Intelligent risk-taking doesn’t mean approaching life with reckless abandon. It means being informed of the possible outcomes, weighing possibilities, and making informed decisions. Having confidence in yourself and your abilities — despite any outcome — helps you move forward with risk-taking.

Write a list of all possible risks associated with a situation, positive and negative. Write all outcomes or possibilities that come to mind. Denote positive and negative factors. Recognize that many of these won’t come true, and reflect on what you can handle if any one of them does happen.

If you’re wondering whether to stay at your job or take a new job at a startup company, recognize that you don’t know the outcome of either position and cannot read into the future of your happiness. Instead, realize taking a new job is a risk and staying at your current job is also a risk. Weigh your options and abilities (commute, salary, type of work, co-workers), then make a decision.

2

Move past your fear of disappointment. If you constantly fear being disappointed, chances are you will never take a risk. You may fear negative feedback or may feel like you can’t handle things going poorly. Realize that disappointment is relative, and that while there is a possibility of disappointment, positive outcomes can come of any situation. By fearing disappointment, you may begin living a life of regret, which is disappointment in different packaging.[3]

If you want to ask for a raise at work yet fear hearing the words “no” or negative feedback, go for it anyway. If nothing else, you open a conversation of a raise. Yes, you may receive negative feedback, but you also may hear that you are doing a terrific job.

3

Get out of your comfort zone. Getting out of your comfort zone means feeling increasingly more comfortable with uncertainty. Not knowing a situation’s outcome can bring about feelings of anxiety. Learning to feel more comfortable with uncertainty will help you cope with the inevitable change of plans or unforeseeable future. By avoiding uncertainty, you remain in fear; by confronting uncertainty, you are able to move forward and begin to feel more comfortable.[4]

Identify uncertainties you have and write them down, in order of most anxiety to least anxiety. Start small and challenge yourself by facing your uncertainties; perhaps not checking your phone for an hour or trying a new food. Reflect on how you feel before, during, and after. Did it turn out okay? Record your conclusions and start working on more challenging situations.[5]

4

Create self-affirmations. Have you noticed that when you wake up thinking you’ll have a bad day, things tend to go poorly for you? The same is true when you wake up feeling like you will have a great day; what you think or say will happen has a way of happening. Affirmations are positive phrases you say to yourself (silently or aloud) that help you create the reality you want, despite what you currently feel. They affirm your abilities in the present.[6] Use affirmations while you get ready for your day each morning, before important situations, or when you are feeling nervous.

If you’re feeling nervous about a presentation, say, “I am confident in my abilities and will be successful.”

If you feel unprepared, say, “I prepared as much as I could, and feel good about the work I did.”

If you are struggling to feel successful, say, “I am capable of doing anything I put my mind to, and can accomplish whatever I want.”

5

Trust your instincts. Some people call this your gut, a hunch, your instincts, or your intuition. Maybe you’ve experienced this feeling while searching for a parking spot (“I bet there’s a spot down the next aisle”) or studying for an exam (“I better study this section, I just know it will be on the test”). Every situation cannot be approached in rationality, especially when it comes to risk taking. If you have an unexplained good or bad feeling that seems to be a sense of “knowing”, listen to it.[7] Some studies have shown that physiological responses occur even before an event, as if your body has a sense of knowing even before a situation has occurred.[8]

Tune in to your body’s sense of knowing when making big decisions, and try to turn down fears and anxieties for a moment. Chances are, your intuition has something to say, and your happiness can be affected for the better.[9]

You may want to travel the world, yet your friends and family discourage you, saying it doesn’t make any sense. If you “know” it’s a good thing for you to do, go for it!

Part 2

Practicing Positive Risk-Taking

1

Recognize the benefits of taking chances. Risk-taking behavior allows you to feel a sense of independence, have a new experience, and establish yourself as an individual.[10] While risks can be scary, they allow you to push past your perception of limitations and try something new. Risks can change your self-perception and help you realize you are capable of many things.

Some people challenge themselves to run a marathon despite not being physically active. Coming from a place of no fitness to running a marathon is an incredibly large feat, one they may not have thought possible before finishing.

2

Check your happiness. Happier people take risks. Happiness allows you to become more open to possibilities, and more trusting and generous. When you feel happy, you are more willing to believe that the odds are in your favor.[11]

Before taking a risk, check in with your own happiness. Go do something you enjoy (like hiking or bike riding) before you make big decisions. Think about your ability to experience a positive outcome.

3

Take different kinds of risks. While some people are more likely to take financial risks (like making investments or gambling), others are more likely to take social risks (like voicing an unpopular opinion in a work meeting). Recognize that risks can occur in many areas and affect life in many different ways. There is no “better” risk.[12]

Recognize that risk can include social risk, financial risk, stability risks, changing appearance, and so on. The kind of risks you take are up to you.

4

Have risk-taking friends. When your social network is filled with people who enjoy taking risks, it increases your likelihood to engage in risks as well.[13] The actions of one person tend to spread throughout the social network, leading to influencing other people as well. This can cause harm when the risk is alcohol or drugs, but can be of benefit when the risk can be positive, such as trying new sports like paragliding or snow shoeing.

If you are fearful of backpacking, have friends that enjoy hiking and backpacking. Listen to them tell stories of enjoyment. Chances are, you’ll start to feel more comfortable about backpacking and maybe even give it a shot.

5

Remember that not taking risks is also a risk. When faced with a decision, realize that any road you take involves some risk. Even if that decision is to stay within your comfort zone or venture outside of it, there are risks associated with either outcome. When you stay within your comfort zone, you risk not experiencing happiness in different ways, not exploring more facets of who you are, and not growing in new ways.

When faced with a decision, acknowledge the risks inherent to each outcome.

If your choice is to stay home for the weekend or go camping for the first time, you may risk regret, missing out on meeting new people or having new experiences, or feeling sad or guilty by choosing to stay home.